When I was a little girl, around 4 or 5 years old, my family moved from our little end-terrace house to a beautiful big house with a huge garden in a very posh area of West London. The new house was everything a young family could’ve wanted – the garden had a pond (!) which over the years we filled with all sorts of creatures (goldfish which were gradually eaten one-by-one by the heron who lived in the park next door; at one point koi who were too big for the pond; and terrapins who killed all the goldfish the heron didn’t eat until one escaped and my father and I “released” the other into the park, whoops – we may be responsible for the family of terrapins who now live there), my brother and I had our own bedrooms which were much bigger than those in the old house, a huge kitchen where my mother dreamed of starting Chinese cookery lessons and two guest bedrooms, one of which became our live-in-nanny’s room then a TV room when she eventually left us, and the other which was later turned into a study for my parents.

About a fifteen minute walk away there was a huge church in the middle of the green by the High Street which my parents decided we should start attending, especially as it was so close by. Both my brother and I were baptised and confirmed there and for the next 13 years or so we spent almost every Sunday there. This church is also where I met my oldest friend Cathy and whilst I have my own issues with religion now, I will forever be thankful that it brought her into my life.

So I only went and did it again and totally forgot to celebrate my blog-o-versary (I should really put the date in my diary) and I Am A Feeder is now 2-years-old! It’s weird to think that I’ve been cultivating my little inch of the web for just over 2 years – when I started it I don’t think I ever expected to be doing the things that I’m doing in my life right now or, even, still blogging. So a huge thank you to all of my friends, family and readers who have stuck with me over these 2 years, for all of the lovely messages, comments and emails, and particularly to the new friends I’ve made all over the world. You guys were an unexpected bonus when all I wanted to do was write down my recipes and vent at the world (as I do so often) – am massively appreciative to all of you!

And I suppose a 2-year mark is the perfect time for me to make a couple of little announcements. Well. Maybe not so little. Remember how I talked about change in my last post? Well the first change is that the offer we made on our dream house was accepted and so I’ll be moving to a completely different part of London next month, but the biggest change of all is that this October I’m going to be starting culinary school.

So a few days ago I discovered a little deli next door to where I work. It’s pretty ridiculous that I’ve only just discovered it seeing as I used to live ten minutes away from there, walked up and down that road a million times, and have worked three or four doors up from it for just over a year now. But then I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, sometimes.

Whilst waiting for my ride I was wandering up and down the road, saw the deli and sauntered in for a gander. They had olives, a few cookies, some vegan delicacies, and a few random imported jars of interesting looking sauces. Then I saw a little jar of guava jam. I. Love. Guava. I deliberated for only a moment before deciding that I had to have it, despite the fact that I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I also had a quick chat with the owner, Antonio, who was absolutely lovely and thought it was hilarious that I studied one field, worked in another and was trying to move into another with no continuity between any of it. Thankfully, when I got home and was wondering what to do with my jam, a Twitter friend suggested that I make Guava Jam Linzer Cookies and so an idea was born. If only the idea had been better executed.